Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 14-Year-old Jeremy Bright

disappeared at a county fair in Oregon.

Some believe he was shot by local teenager.

Last November, a Virginia Sheriff was

brutally shot while on patrol.

Before he died, he described his attacker's car.

In 1936, a Canadian gold prospector

vanished, leaving an unclaimed fortune

that may be worth $3 million.

Racketeer Leo Koury has been charged with extortion,

robbery, and murder.

He has eluded the FBI for 10 years.

In November, Michaela Garecht was

abducted outside a local store.

Her friend gave police an eyewitness

description of the kidnapper.

In Atlanta, Georgia, the peaceful retirement

of an elderly couple has been shattered by unexplained noises

and apparitions.

[music playing]

Tonight, six cases on "Unsolved

Mysteries," each needing that one vital clue

to close the file forever.

Join me.

You may be able to help solve the mystery.

[music playing]

No pain can match the suffering

of a parent who's lost a child.

No frustration is greater than that of parents whose child

is missing, their fate unknown.

Our next story concerns a 14-year-old boy

named Jeremy Bright who went to a county fair

in Myrtle Point, Oregon in mid-August 1986.

Jeremy was never seen again.

Since that weekend, a number of clues and rumors have surfaced.

Jeremy's parents and the police have

come to one inescapable conclusion-- someone living

in Myrtle Point, Oregon knows exactly what

happened to Jeremy.

They're not talking.

But they know.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To those who knew him,

Jeremy was a popular, sports-loving boy.

He looked forward to beginning high school in the fall.

He always had lots to do, and places to go.

He played basketball, and baseball, and football.

And he knew everybody.

And everybody knew him.

He was always a real outgoing kid.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Every August, the Coos County

fair roles into Myrtle Point.

This is the occasion of a weeklong celebration.

And to Jeremy Bright and his close friend Johnny,

it was one of the high points of the year.

Normally, Jeremy lived 100 miles away in Grants Pass,

where his mother worked.

But during the week of the fair, he and his younger sister

were staying with their stepfather

Ollie in Myrtle point.

On Friday, August 15, Ollie went to work before dawn

and didn't see Jeremy leave for the fair.

But that day, a handful of people

saw Jeremy and Johnny enjoying the festivities.

Around 4:45 that same Thursday, Jeremy placed a long distance

call to his mother Diane.

He told her he was having a terrific time at the fair.

She told Jeremy she'd be back in Myrtle Point in two days

to pick him up.

I love you Mom, bye.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Five hours later, at 9:40 PM, Jeremy

went to a local tavern owned by his grandmother

to meet his stepfather, now home from work.

He asked to borrow some money from him.

Here, take some of this.

Thanks.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This was the last time Jeremy

was ever seen by his family. - You behave yourself.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two days later on Saturday, Diana

arrived in Myrtle point to meet Jeremy.

He never showed UPI.

DIANE: I went and got my car.

And I went to Ollie's house, the kid's step dad's house.

And I went in.

And on the TV set was his house keys from our Grants Pass

apartment, and his wallet, and his new watch that he

had told me he'd bought.

I knew when I found those things that he

was around somewhere, because he wouldn't leave without them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As the carnival played on,

Diane's fears began to escalate.

On Saturday night, she contacted the police.

At first, they believed her son had

succumbed to the romantic lure of the carnival

and had run away.

He did like the fair.

There was the thought that, perhaps,

he was hiding out, intending to leave with the fair people.

And I've explored that possibility in every way

that I can think of.

I can't lose sight of the fact that it

is possible that he left with members of that fair troop.

However, in this particular case,

I've talked to family members and friends

of his that knew him well.

And he was just not, from what I can learn,

the type of a kid who would have struck out on his own.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On Sunday, August 17th, 1986,

the fair folded up its tent.

Myrtle Point returned to normal.

Within days, ominous rumors concerning Jeremy's

disappearance began to surface.

Think I can hit a beer?

Yeah, go ahead.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In Myrtle point,

the week of the fair was a time for partying.

According to one rumor, Jeremy attended one of these parties

and was offered a beer laced with a powerful, illegal drug.

You looking for a beer?

Yeah.

Don't open another one.

There's one already open right here.

I can have this?

Sure, knock yourself out.

I've identified at least two, and perhaps three, parties

where Jeremy was present that the overdose theory

could have occurred in.

It was reported that Jeremy had a heart murmur.

And, therefore, a stimulant of some kind

might have done some bodily damage to him,

just by his sheer taking it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): An anonymous source

told the police another story.

He claimed that three local toughs had shown up

and harassed Jeremy and his friends

while they played in a swimming hole.

Then things went terribly wrong.

Is that a gun?

What?

This?

This is a toy.

It was at the jail where an inmate related to me

the information that he had heard, wherein one individual

from the Myrtle Point area was target practicing, or shooting,

indiscriminately in the water in the area

where Jeremy was swimming.

Show me what you're made of now.

[gunshot]

[laughing]

That's better.

Pierce his ear.

I bet you can.

You think so?

All right, I'm going to try this one.

[gunshot]

They subsequently took him to a cabin,

maybe within 10 miles of the Myrtle Point area,

and attempted to nurse him back to health, to no avail,

that he died as a result of that injury,

either from loss of blood, or from infection,

or what have you.

That same source through the jail

indicated that his body would be found

within 200 feet of this cabin in a shallow grave.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police searched the area surrounding

the cabin and found nothing.

DIANE: All the rumors were hard to handle.

All of them are hard to think about.

Every time I'd hear a new one, I'd have

nightmares for a week or so.

The one that I hope is not what happened

is one where he suffered for two weeks before he died,

and they buried his body, because the thought

of him suffering for two weeks just makes me sick.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): That were two more

strange clues-- Jeremy was last seen by his family on Thursday

night.

The following night, a sister of Jeremy's friend Johnny

had a disturbing encounter.

It was Friday night of the fair.

And it was between midnight and one

when we were leaving my sister's apartment.

And we came down the stairs.

And we got to the last stair.

And we almost ran into one of the neighborhood guys.

And I jumped back, because it startled me, because he was

completely covered in blood.

And, I mean, it was just all over him.

And it kind of scared me.

- What happened to you? - This?

He goes, oh, this?

This happened hours ago.

And he just laughed.

And then he went into one of the apartments.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A half hour

after this encounter, Johnny arrived at the same building

where another sister lived.

According to her, he was overwrought and terrified,

but didn't want to explain.

Whether it is just coincidence,

or whether they're directly related

to Jeremy's disappearance, is another one of the mysteries

that you still have to sort through to try to determine

what, indeed, did happen.

DIANE: The three or four people whose names

keep reappearing in all the rumors and all of the reports,

they're not exactly what anybody would call pillars of society.

But as long as these men are out on the street,

they can hurt somebody else's child the same

as they hurt mine.

And if nobody comes forward, that's leaving them out there.

And if they did to my son what people are saying they did,

and what they've been heard themselves say that they did,

they've got no business on the public streets.

And we can't do nothing until we get the whole story,

and make them pay for what they did to my boy.

I would just encourage anyone, especially

those people who I feel have information that would help

this investigation greatly, to just simply have the courage

to say, yeah, I'm scared to death.

But in a case like this, my being scared

doesn't warrant this family's pain.

[music playing]

If you've ever been stopped for a traffic ticket,

you might have noticed that the officer approached cautiously.

Imagine what's going through his mind.

You know who he is, because of his uniform.

But he has no idea who you are.

To him, it could be another routine traffic violation.

Then again, it could be that one case

where the unexpected happens and his life is on the line.

Our next story is about just such a case.

It happened in a rural county in Virginia,

where a police officer had not been killed for over 20 years

until last November.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the early morning hours of Friday,

November the 4th, 1988, Patrolman John Martin,

a 17-year veteran of the Lee County,

Virginia Sheriff's Department was

making his regular rounds when he noticed something unusual.

604 to Jones--

Go ahead, 604.

I'll be checking a parked vehicle out at the Western

Lee County Health Clinic.

10-4, 604.

John Martin reported to our dispatcher in Jonesville

at 2:58 AM on the morning of November 4

that he was checking a car parked

behind the Lee County Health Clinic in Ewing, Virgina.

604 to Jones?

Go ahead.

This vehicle just pulled out on me.

And then he came back, and said that the car was moving

out on him, and that he was stopping it about halfway down

the driveway, and that it was a large light brown car, possibly

a Cadillac.

And he couldn't give the license number

because it was on the inside of the car in the back window.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): That was the last transmission

John Martin made to the dispatcher.

Authorities believe that Martin left his patrol car

and approached the driver to question him.

See your operator's license, please?

[gunshots]

RADIO: 604?

604?

604?

He didn't respond to the radio.

So we had an officer probably seven miles away that we sent

to check on arrive at its location

I found Officer Martin lying in the driveway of the clinic.

At the time of arrival, I didn't know what had happened to him.

When I got to him, he told me, Doug, I've been shot.

And I'm hurt bad.

I contacted the dispatcher, and had a rescue squad dispatched.

Rescue squad is on the way.

You're going to be all right.

You know, I knew he'd been seriously wounded.

And, of course, he was a good friend of mine,

as well as a fellow officer.

I knew at the point when I found him he was probably critically

injured, and it was very important

that I be able to maintain the scene,

and to be able to get what information I could from him

while he was conscious.

And that was the most important thing to do at the time.

And That's what I attempted to do.

Did you see who did it?

Or did you get a description of the vehicle?

He was in his mid-20s.

He had a mustache.

I asked him about the automobile and about the tag.

He advised me that the tag was in the rear window,

that it was a dealer tag.

However, he could not read the registration

numbers from the tag.

But he was able to give me a rough description

of the vehicle as a Buick, light brown or tan.

And it was a Buick from 1970 to 1977,

perhaps, one of the large Buicks.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Martin was

able to give Officer Parsons one final piece of information

about the license plate.

It read the Land of Lincoln, which is the motto

for the state of Illinois.

Did you shoot into the car or shoot anyone?

Yes, I shot at the vehicle.

He had advised me he had emptied his gun into the car.

I checked his weapon.

And it was empty.

He had fired all six rounds from his revolver.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Martin was rushed

to the nearest hospital 22 miles away,

suffering from three bullet wounds.

Doctors removed a .44 caliber bullet from his body,

but he lapsed into a coma.

[sirens]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three days later, John Martin died.

On November the 10th, John Martin was

laid to rest with full honors.

Police officers from seven states and hundreds of area

residents came to pay their final respects to

the 39-year-old father of four.

I just thought it wouldn't happen to him.

And we had talked about it.

But it don't feel real, because I just feel like an officer's

job is to protect other people.

And that's all he was doing.

But we just-- out of this, we're hoping that we can

possibly catch whoever done it.

That's our main priority right now.

That's all we want.

Two weeks ago, a man believed to be John Martin's murderer

was arrested by Sheriff's deputies in Illinois.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On November 5th, Effingham,

Illinois police impounded a stolen car burnt

almost beyond recognition.

Inside, they discovered evidence that this was a car that was

used in John Martin's killing.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office

was immediately contacted.

And their first question was, does your bunt car have

a bullet hole in your door?

And our answer was, yes.

And at which point, they decided to send a team of investigators

to Effingham and continue the investigation.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police believe

that the bullet holes were caused by John Martin's gun.

During their investigation, authorities

uncovered information that linked a 24-year-old man named

David Wain Mills to the car.

During a search of the home where Mills was living,

investigators found additional evidence connecting him

to the murder of John Martin.

When Mills arrived home, he was immediately arrested.

Mills admitted being present when Officer Martin was killed,

but claims that an accomplice fired the gun.

This alleged accomplice has been questioned,

but no formal charges have been made.

On January 5th, Mills was extradited

back to Virginia, where he is currently

being held without bail.

During questioning, he gave authorities

information which led them to a .44 caliber pistol.

Ballistics tests have confirmed this was the gun

that killed John Martin.

David Wain Mills has been charged

with first degree murder.

However, the prosecuting attorney

may elevate the charge to capital murder, which

carries the death penalty.

[music playing]

In a moment, the story of a mysterious Canadian prospector

who left a fortune that may be worth $3 million.

Someone watching tonight may be his heir.

[music playing]

Last year on "Unsolved Mysteries,"

we told you about George Marsh and Charlie Sheal,

who when they died left unclaimed fortunes.

Both cases were solved.

Legitimate heirs came forward to claim their inheritance.

Tonight, we have another missing heir story.

Dan Whelans, a mysterious Canadian prospector,

spent a lifetime finding gold.

According to public records, he left an unclaimed estate

of nearly $100,000, but Whelans' wealth

may be worth much, much more than that, some

say as much as $3 million.

And his heirs may well be alive today in the United States.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dan Whelans

was one of thousands of men reporting to Canada

wanting to strike it rich.

They came from all walks of life.

Between treks in the wilderness, they settled in rough mining

towns like Hailey Barry in Ontario, Canada,

where Dan Whelans was well known 1925.

Oh, he's bluffing.

There we go, aces, twos, nines.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Thrown together by fate and greed,

these rough prospectors spent their nights playing poker,

and their days hoping to find that one strike

that would make their fortune.

Gentlemen, the game is yours.

Dan Whelans and his closest friends

relied on each other to share information

on stakes and claims.

But even they didn't know who Dan Whelans really was.

Thanks a lot, Dan.

He was very private.

I don't know if I ever listened to him ever

brag about himself, never, never, or comment

about his past, never, never.

I consider him a gentleman's gentleman, always well-dressed.

And his walk and his stance, I would

take him to be a military man.

Good night, really good.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dan Whelans

had a partner, Bill Koshner.

One night, another miner pulled out a map.

He told Dan and Bill that there might be gold in Red

Lake 850 miles to the west.

You've heard of Red Lake?

Heard of it.

I've heard of it, yes.

Well, here it is, right here.

I've staked some claims on this point.

And I've got real good showings.

I think we should go in there.

I think you're right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dan Whelans' and Bill

Koshner journeyed for more than a month

through the desolate outback.

In the next year, Whelans and his partner

staked 12 claims around Red Lake.

Finally, their hard work turned up tiny glints

in the sand that meant gold.

From that small beginning, one of Canada's most profitable

gold mines sprang to life, and with it

the community of Red Lake.

The Koshner-Whelans mine drew $45 million

worth of gold, worth $1 billion in today's values.

Running a lucrative mining company didn't interest Dan.

His real love was panning for gold.

Dan Whelans continued his solitary prospecting.

Often, he disappeared in the wilderness

alone for months at a time, still staking claims

and sifting through sand.

There was another side to Dan Whelans.

The rough outdoorsman led a double life as a gentleman

of culture and breeding.

Every autumn, he'd take over an entire floor

of the elegant King Edward Hotel in Toronto wax his mustache,

and entertain his friends with lavish amounts of champagne.

He had a social life that very few people knew anything about.

And he loved life.

There's no doubt about it.

He loved life.

He liked sociability.

There was no doubt about this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): From prospector to gentlemen

and back again, Dan Whelans kept up this double life for years.

In the autumn of 1936, Dan Whelans

mysteriously vanished while on of his prospecting trips.

Baffled by his partner's absence,

Bill Koshner began to search for Whelans.

He said he went to his cabin, and found everything

immaculately in place.

He got that eerie feeling that he

had just left things in place, and was gone,

and wouldn't be found.

When he disappeared, the story was that he'd

taken a trip into the bush.

And he was never heard of again, that he

was lost, that he perished.

Now, Dan was a good bushman.

And he wasn't a weak man.

He was a very strong man.

And I don't think for one minute that he was lost.

I think he went back, Daniel, and took

his social place in life.

I'm in for five.

Five?

Is that all?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Some believe that Dan may have been

killed after a poker game, and his body thrown

down an abandoned mine shaft.

I think I'm going to take a chance.

If he got into a poker game, it's just hard to say

what might have happened.

Money and losers don't work too well together, especially

if they lose their money.

He was a good poker player.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The truth

of Dan Whelan's disappearance remains as elusive as his past.

Only a handful of clues exist.

He appeared to be from England.

He was skilled as a horseman, and at cards.

He never married.

One prospector believes he may have had a sister in England.

His unclaimed estate was valued in 1936 at $71,000.

This money held by the public trustee of Ontario

is now worth nearly $100,000.

But we know that Whelans owned half the shares

in the Koshner-Whelans mine, and that his partner Bill

brought back most of those shares

seven years after Whelans vanished.

Those shares alone would have been worth at least $850,000

in 1943.

45 years later, they could be worth much more.

Yet, no one can locate the money.

Terry Howes, a Toronto-based tracer of missing heirs

has learned that Dan Whelans may not be his true name.

We have reason to think that his real name

was Dalton Thomas Whelans.

And we feel that there are heirs either in Britain or the US,

somewhere in the world.

Today, if an heir turned up, and we have every reason

to think that heirs are going to turn up,

the estate could be worth in the vicinity of $3 million,

depending upon the interest that's

been paid over the years.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Update--

within days of our broadcast, Davey Whelans, a New York

businessman, called our 800 number,

claiming he might be one of the heirs to Dan Whelans' fortune.

My grandfather, we have determined, and came

from the UK to Ontario in 1895.

At that time, he was 11 years of age.

We believe he traveled with another family member.

And we also have been told that there was a cousin someplace

up in the outback of Ontario.

But there was never any contact with that individual

through the years.

So when this "Unsolved Mysteries" program aired,

and this Dan Whelans, a bushmen from Ontario, was disclosed,

it certainly was an exciting possible link

for our family tree searching.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Davey Whelans

flew to Toronto to meet Joe Perkins, one of Dan Whelans'

last surviving friends.

He brought along photographs of his grandfather, Harold

Whelans, and his great-grandfather John Whelans

to see if there was a family resemblance.

It was uncanny.

I couldn't believe it, the similarity of the face,

the nose, the spacing of the eyes, the forehead.

And I think if you took the beard off the old man,

they'd look like twins.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Indeed, there does seem

to be a strong resemblance.

Are great grandfather John, grandfather Harold,

and prospector Dan Whelans all blood relatives?

Is Davey an heir to Dan Whelans' fortune?

Certainly, money is important to everybody.

And if the Ontario government is holding considerable assets

that could rightfully be claimed by a Whelans,

then I'd like to see that happen.

I don't know if it'll be me and my cousins or not.

But maybe now, we can get some Whelans to come forward.

And maybe we do have a strong case to be made.

And, certainly, we are going to take the next steps

to pursue that possibility.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, the story of Leo Koury,

a volunteer softball umpire active in his local church,

and a suspected murder and arsonist who has

eluded the FBI for 10 years.

On March 19th 1975 in Richmond, Virginia,

a bodyguard named Chuck Kernighan was murdered,

and his body placed in a trunk.

Police were told that Kernighan's corpse was driven

to the Rappahannock River, weighed

down with a bumper from a '57 Chevrolet,

and thrown overboard.

Kernighan's body has never been found.

The police believe that local businessman Leo

Koury was responsible for this contract killing.

In the mid-'70s, the same Leo Koury

was a volunteer softball umpire and active in his local church.

Leo was married with four children, and a member

of the American Legion.

Leo was a nice guy to many people.

There are people that are close to him

that characterize him as a caring, sensitive individual.

However, our investigation turned up another story.

And that is the leader of a racketeering enterprise

who made a living committing crimes.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Then on April 20th, 1979,

Leo Koury was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted

List as an accused murderer.

He has eluded the authorities for 10 years.

Koury was a successful restaurant owner

who was fiercely competitive.

Reportedly, he tried to force his rivals

out of business by sending in thugs to terrorize the patrons.

[gunshots]

This is a stick up!

[screaming]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On January 15th, 1977,

Koury's friends brutally attacked innocent customers

at the Mailbox Restaurant.

One person died, and several were injured.

It became apparent after a few months of investigation

that Leo Koury was at the very center

of a racketeering enterprise.

And that means that he ran an organization,

that their primary income was through illegal purposes,

be it frauds, extortion, murder, whatever.

But their income was from crime.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): While the FBI suspected

Koury was responsible, they could

not indict him because his inner circle was extremely loyal.

They often picked vulnerable groups,

like the local gay community, as victims

for his scams and extortions.

I want you to kill a man for me.

I'll do it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On October, 1977,

Koury asked Eddie Lore to make a hit on restaurant owner Jim

Hillyar.

A few days later, Koury's scheme backfired

when Eddie Lore was fond hiding outside Jim Hillyar's home.

Get 'em up!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This arrest

was the turning point for the FBI,

and directly led to Koury's indictment.

We later learned that he was there, allegedly at Leo Koury's

behest, to kill Hillyar to eliminate

Hillyar as competition in the restaurant business.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Lore agreed to work with the FBI.

He was equipped with a hidden microphone.

And the FBI secretly recorded a conversation with Koury

for their investigation.

This is the actual recording of Leo Koury's voice in the car.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Based on the surveillance tapes,

on October 331st, 1978, Leo Koury was indicted

by a federal grand jury.

He was charged with murder, attempted

murder, extortion, assault, racketeering, fraud, and arson.

But the day before the charges came down,

Leo Koury disappeared from Richmond, Virginia.

Leo Koury is a very competitive person.

And it would not surprise me-- and it's

been done in the past with top 10 fugitives--

where they pick up the phone, and call

the agent who's looking for them simply to tweak their nose.

So it would be an interesting call.

I'd just like to know he's alive.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Over the last 10 years,

the FBI have recorded 165 sightings of Koury,

mostly on the East Coast, but also

in Brazil and the Middle East.

The FBI are offering a $25,000 reward in this case,

and have even put up billboards around the country

with Leo Koury's face on them.

His FBI file is now 38 volumes thick.

What we've come up with is the most logical location

for Leo Koury, and what he's doing,

is probably Florida, drugs.

And we believe he's still closely associated

with the gay community.

[music playing]

November 19, 1988-- a 9-year-old girl named Michaela

Garecht and her best friend were given $5 by the friend's father

to spend at a local market in Hayward, California,

a suburb of Oakland.

The two girls rode from Michaela's house

to the market on their scooters.

Michaela came and asked if she could go.

And I said, yes.

And she jumped up and down, and said, oh, goodie, goodie.

They went to the market.

And that's the last time we've seen her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Although Michaela's house was

only four blocks from the market,

her parents insisted she be accompanied by a friend.

She usually made a trip to the store

at least once a day, or every other day or so.

She's get a friend and go up there and their scooters.

We never let her go to the store by herself.

She always had to be with somebody.

When they came out of the store,

Michaela's scooter was gone.

It was over by a car.

And when she went over to get the scooter,

a man stepped out of the car, and grabbed her from behind,

and threw her into her car, and took off with her.

Michaela!

Michaela's friend went back into the store,

and advised the clerk in the store

that her friend had been kidnapped.

And then they called the police.

The biggest thing that makes this one

a little different than most is that we do

have a suspect description.

We do have a suspect vehicle description.

And we do have a witness that saw this take place.

Look at the pictures.

And see if there's--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michaela's friend

was shown mugshots of possible suspects,

but was unable to identify any of them.

She was, however, able to assist police artists in creating

a composite of the suspect.

She described a white male, age 18 to early 20s,

approximately six feet in height with dirty blonde,

shoulder length hair.

The man had a slender build and a pockmarked complexion.

The car he was driving was a large American model, a few

years old, in poor condition.

It appeared to be brown or tan in color.

Right now, what we need to know, if anybody was to call,

is we need a name, a place where we could

find Michaela or the kidnapper.

Nobody has to leave a name.

All they have to do is just give us that tip

that we need to act.

Life just is not the same.

And it won't be the same again until Michaela comes home.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On our next story,

we'll meet a retired couple, Jim and Kaye Tatum

who are sober, reliable people.

Jim was a career army officer, Kaye an accountant.

But in their new home, they've experienced

unexplained sounds and objects that

moved for no apparent reason.

Experts call this poltergeist activity.

Some believe that such activity is not

caused by ghosts, but rather by psychokinesis, a hidden

psychic power in the mind of an individual

which unconsciously moves objects through space.

Could it be that Jim and Kaye Tatum

cause their own hauntings?

This is a quiet suburb near Atlanta, Georgia

where Jim and Kaye Tatum built a new home.

There, they planned to retire.

But five months after they moved in,

the Tatums began to experience unusual events that forced them

to put their house up for sale.

For this reason, they requested we not show it.

But they did allow us to film inside.

One night in January of 1986, Kaye Tatum

woke from a restless sleep.

Not wanting to disturb her husband,

she left their bedroom.

She sensed a strange presence.

Jim?

I'm in here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Kaye had seen a glimpse of a man

walking past the open doorway.

At first, I thought it was my husband.

And I went into the bedroom.

And there, my husband was in the bed.

So I thought we had a burglar.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jim searched the house.

It was definitely a man.

And he was swinging his arms slightly,

and his head was slightly bent.

And he walked briskly past me.

There was nothing that you could see through.

There was no evidence of any entry.

There was no evidence of anyone having been in the house.

And I thought, perhaps, Kaye had been using

an overactive imagination.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As the night passed into dawn,

Kaye Tatum lay awake, and wondered.

I had fear.

And I was perplexed about what happened.

And while I was tossing and turning,

I suddenly remembered that I didn't

hear any sound as he passed me.

And I still am unable to figure out why it happened.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After Kay's first experience,

two months passed by without incident.

Then one night, Jim was repairing a ladder

that led up to their attic.

His work was interrupted when Kaye called him for dinner.

I specifically unplugged the drill,

because it's a very old drill.

I thought it might be dangerous to leave it plugged.

As the evening wore on, he wanted to watch a movie.

And I decided to go upstairs and read.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): One hour later, Kay heard the sound

of the drill outside her room.

She thought that Jim was teasing her about having seen a ghost,

and she tried to ignore the noise.

Eventually, she went into the hallway.

It was empty.

And the drill was unplugged.

I was really frightened.

And I reached down and felt on it.

And it was ice cold.

It had not been turned on.

I was very confused.

And I knew very well that something

was happening, because Kaye is very level headed.

And she was truly frightened.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): These incidents continued.

One night, she heard the sound of coins falling in a bowl.

But she was alone in the room.

Another time, while cooking, Kay felt

two sharp tugs on her blouse.

After that incident, I decided we

have a problem in this house.

There's something going on.

It's not something that we can understand or explain.

But there's something definitely going on.

This is where most of the things have been happening.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): These occurrences

seem to center around Kay.

Parapsychologist William Roll visited the house to try

to interpret these events.

The question comes up, why is this family

having these experiences?

Is there a ghost that has come back to haunt

them for some unknown reason?

Or what's taking place?

A lot of people have these experiences.

It's part of who we are as humans to have

so-called psychic experiences.

The Pop was up here on the wall.

I see.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Roll believes that memories can

actually be transferred to physical objects,

and these residual memories may be

triggered by ordinary people.

The nature of its presence seems

to be a teasing type of thing, as though it's teasing us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In February, Jim finally

had his first experience.

It started with this small bell located in the guestroom.

Jim had a habit of waking hours before his wife.

When Kay woke, she would ring the bell

if she needed him upstairs.

I'd grown used to climbing the stairs after hearing the bell.

And so I did so.

And it wasn't Kay.

She was asleep.

So I went in and looked at the bell.

And it was there.

And I thought, obviously, I heard something else other

than the bell.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After the third time

this happened, the couple decided to make up a code

in order to outwit the entity.

If it rings three times, I'll come on up the stairs.

All right, we'll do that.

[bell ringing]

So the next time, it rang three times.

I knew this Kay, because this was our signal.

But Kay was sound asleep.

And the bell was in the other bedroom, where it stays.

I went in and looked at it.

I turned around, and walked out the door.

And the thing rang again.

Then I began to see how Kay felt. I mean, I was frightened.

The hair stood up on my neck.

I told Kay then.

I says, no more bell.

I'm not going to answer that bell anymore.

And that bell has not rung since.

I've never seen him like that before.

There are a number of haunting cases

that are not very striking, not very strong,

but where the phenomena nevertheless might

be disturbing to the family.

It might be a bell ringing, a fleeting glimpse

of an apparition.

The events are trivial.

But they're deeply upsetting to the family,

because they don't fit into the picture that most of us

have of the world.

And that image of the physical world,

particularly of our home, is intricately related to who

we picture ourselves as being.

The story about the bell gets me emotional,

because this a real turning point in my life.

I knew then that there are things that are unexplained.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Tatums feel that their home

is no longer their own.

They have decided to move, leaving

the entity, if that indeed is what it is,

to live in the house alone.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): For every mystery,

there is someone, somewhere, who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

[music playing]